


If you give them an inch...

by Jane0Doe



Series: Gone [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, So much angst, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-10-30 02:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20807381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jane0Doe/pseuds/Jane0Doe
Summary: ...they'll take a mile.You would think people would learn from past mistakes.You would think people would learn not to dishonour the dead.





	If you give them an inch...

**Author's Note:**

> shout out to Garpie64 and abirdofwhichabatbecame for the suggested substitutes for microsoft.  
i didn't end up using it as i found something else and then finally managed to fix the problem I had, but it was really nice of you guys to try and help me at all  
:)

The comment isn’t as bad as it could have been, all things considered. 

Unfortunately, he’s been on edge all day and listening to Dick disparage Jason -even offhandedly like he is now- is more than enough to have Tim’s hackles rising. A string of cutting remarks effectively silences the other vigilante, but also has the unwanted effect of drawing the man’s full attention directly down upon him.

It seems the reprieve his silence had bought him was finally at an end.

Pity.

After a moment, Dick opens his mouth once more, his face awash with worry but also a hint of anger. Its all Tim needs to see, and he leaves before the other can speak. 

He has no wish to fight right now. 

.

Hours later, when the anger has faded and his thoughts lulled, he finally feels the stinging in his hands. Blood red crescents mark his palms, a physical reminder of his near loss of control. 

He’s better than this. He _needs_ to be better than this if-

No.

He _won’t_ think about that. 

Not now. 

Not here.

Cass is somewhere nearby and if he even contemplates those thoughts in her presence she’ll know. Maybe not everything, but enough. Enough to start asking questions that he can’t answer. Enough that she might even go looking! Its unlikely she’ll find anything, but the risk isn’t worth it.

With this is mind, he needs to leave. Get out of the manor and just go.

A break from the others will help clear his mind and prevent any more avoidable slip ups.

.

***

.

Red Robin disappears for a week and if it wasn't for the fact that Tam Fox appeared to be in contact with Timothy Drake on a near constant basis at W.E. the family would fear that he'd run away again.

When Nightwing finally manages to track Red down to apologise, he's too relieved to care that it was through no skill of his own but Timmy's own choice to let himself get caught passing a security camera.

The apology is an emotional mess on Dicks part, but overall well meant and Red Robin accepts it gracefully.

Had it ended there things would have been easier. But just like the rest of the Bats, Dick doesn’t know when to quit it. That he manages to stick his foot in his mouth so masterfully that only B could possibly hope to one up him is something that only he was surprised by.

.

***

.

“No offense Timmy, but I didn’t realise that you and Jay were all that close. Especially after…”

He trails off uncertainly, either unwilling or unable to speak of any of the events that took place in the aftermath of Jason’s resurrection and return.

“We were. Maybe not on the same level as Jason was with the Outlaws, but- we were close.”

Now its Reds turn to be choked by hesitance. As things stand Nightwing has no idea of the emotional minefield he’s just stumbled onto, and it would be so, so easy to leave things as they are. Buried and forgotten.

With everything that’s happened, a part of him feels that it might actually be better to let sleeping dogs lie and allow Dick and Bruce their twisted form of grieving.

After all, Red Hoods gone, and he isn’t coming back. _But_-

But whilst its arguable that Red Hood may have deserved what the two of them are doing, **Jason** doesn’t. Besides, Tim doesn’t think he can simply stand back and watch for much longer as Nightwing and Batman strip away all the good Jay did and the trauma he went through, so that they can neatly box him away into ill-fitting categories.

Not now that he knows the real Jason.

Not the reckless, angry robin who burned and fell like Icarus, but the gruff yet empathetic vigilante who was competent to the extreme. Who for all he went a little… overboard with the tough Love, was more than willing to show he cares if you gave him half a chance (just so long as you there wasn't any strings attached to it).

If possible, all of this was made worse by the realisation that if it wasn't for this stilted perception of Jason that the original dynamic duo had concocted thanks to their grief in the wake of his first death, Red Hood might still be here. If it wasn't for the so called parable, it wouldn't have been so difficult to reach out to their wayward robin. All of them, himself included, had been blinded by stereotypes and expectations and had failed to see the person beneath. Something that had tainted all of their interactions with him. Perhaps if Jason had felt that he could trust them to see the real him, Red Hood wouldn't have gone undercover without backup. Perhaps he would have let them in.

Maybe it's just a pipe dream, and a cruel one at that, but once he'd taken a step back, it had been obvious to see how their judgements had actively hurt Jason and pushed him further away. After all, it wasn't until after he'd lost Robin to the demon brat and been dragged back from the edge by Jason that the two of them had gotten close. It was only after his illusions had been shattered and he'd seen the true reality of it all that they had become friends.

So, no. for all that things would be much, much easier, he can’t just leave things be as Hoods legacy was once again destroyed.

Therefore, with a fortifying breath, Tim pushes past his own discomfort at airing something so personal. Even if- especially as it’s another bat. It’s not as if any of them are beacons of mental health or emotional maturity after all.

“He apologised. Kind of. Anyway, turned up outside one of my safe houses a few months after the fact. I was terrified. Not that he could probably tell seeing how utterly smashed he was at the time.” 

Unhindered, a soft smile played across his face as he remembered how Jason had barely been able to stand. If he hadn’t been so scared at the time, he likely would have laughed at how the idiot had been behaving.

“I almost had a heart attack when he started to apologise for making me think that he wanted me dead. Apparently, he never intended to kill me, merely wished to help me realise ‘_within a controlled and relatively safe environment_’ that the life we live isn’t a game. That there’s always someone better than you out there and its merely a matter of when not if you meet them. In our line of work, death is an inevitability, and he didn’t believe I’d understood that.”

_He was right._ Goes unsaid. 

Dick looks stricken. Like his entire world has been turned on end and he doesn’t know what to do. 

Still, he fights it. Fights to maintain the image of who Jason was that he’s built up within his own mind.

“He left you bleeding out on the floor!” is hissed out through gritted teeth, “for God’s sake you still have the scars Timmy!”

Annoyance flashes through him, despite knowing this was how his older brother would respond, and he is unable to keep his scorn from lacing through his next words.

“He left me in the tower, not some empty rooftop or dingy alley _Nightwing._”

Dick cringes slightly at the use of his Nome de plume -finally remembering that they’re on the clock- but otherwise doesn’t react.

“What's more, I was found by my friends within moments of him leaving because **he** chose to reactivate and set off the alarms before leaving. Every one of the wounds he inflicted on me were designed for maximum pain, with minimal injury.

You and I both know that the only reason my injuries scarred is because I ripped my stitches not once but twice! First dodging Poison Ivy, and then fighting Killer Croc! So don’t you dare act like that was intentional Nightwing. Just don’t.”

Its clear that Dick intends to interrupt, but for once Tim doesn’t let him. He’s tired of the judgement. Tired of the fact that when the Sirens and Co. had said Jason would be better off without the mess that they call a family, he couldn’t help but agree. Still can’t.

You would think that losing a son twice would inspire change, no?

“No Dick! I’m not saying that what Jason did wasn’t wrong or that he was right to do it, but what I am saying is that he wasn’t trying to kill me and his intentions -however messed up the reasoning- were good! 

He isn’t some unthinking monster or madman Dick. He’s our brother and I’m sick and tired of watching you and Bruce try and shove him back into that nice little box of yours so you don’t have to deal with anything! You may not have realised, but Jason tried so hard to gain your approval and it never mattered as all you ever saw were his screw ups!”

By the end of it he’s breathing hard and yelling. Dick looks like he’s been struck cross the face, but he doesn’t care. All he can see in his mind is 8 year old Jason’s smile as he desperately tries and fails to hid how pleased he is to have gained Tim’s approval. It’s the same desire to please that had driven Jason the entire time Tim had known him, that and his empathy.

As an adult, Jason’s desperate need for acceptance and approval was only ever overshadowed by his resigned belief that he would never be enough as he was to ever achieve it. That he would never be understood, so there was no point in trying. The Bat clan as a whole, but primarily Dick and Bruce’s actions, had only worked to Hammer home this belief as they tried and failed to mould him into someone he’d never actually been.

Looking back, it’s so easy to see that it wasn’t a lack of caring that drove Jason to kill, but the opposite. Jason cared too much, and it had been his undoing.

Tim wants to believe that if given another chance, both B and Dick would do better. Would _be_ better! That they all would. 

But he isn’t about to put little Jay’s happiness on the line for that.

Especially after this.

Supposedly Jason will gain all of his memories back thanks to Constantine’s meddling -eventually. Already some have been triggered in the form of flash backs, dreams and nightmares.

If a time ever comes when Jason remembers and actually wants to see Dick or B, they’ll deal with it. But before that time arrives, Tim will damn well make sure that Jason knows he is cared for. That he is enough. That he _**believes**_ it.

.

“Was”

“What?”

“He was our brother T- Red. He’d dead now. You- you accept that. Right?”

Bitterness coats his tong. Partly at what he cannot say, but mostly at the fact Dick was using such a tasteless jab at his mental state to conveniently sidestep the point he had been trying to make.

“Death doesn’t change that he’s family _Dick_. I thought you would have gotten that by now.”

Maybe its cruel and petty but he’s so tired of playing the role of the calm and dutiful son; the passive brother and the robin that’s always in control. So he lets himself lose it, just for a second and doesn’t bother to suppress the satisfaction that curls within his gut when he sees all colour drain from the elders face.

Jason and the others have been a terrible influence on him.

Walking off, he doesn’t wait for the man to recover, and he _doesn’t_ look back.

.

They may be a family.

But they’re not a happy one


End file.
